The present project was aimed to correlate the biliary tract diseases and biliary epithelial expression of carbohydrate antigens using immunohistochemstry and collagen gel culture methods. The following results were obtained. 1. A, B and H blood group related carbohydrate antigens were frequently found in the intrahepatic large and septal bile ducts but rare in the small bile ducts of normal livers. However, such expressions were frequent and intense in the diseased intrahepatic small bile ducts irrespective their etiologies. Lewis a and b containing type I chain were expressed diffusely along the normal and abnormal intrahepatic bile ducts. Lewis X and Y containing type II chain were rarely found in the intrahepatic large bile duct in normal livers, though Lewis Y became strongly expressed on the pathologic bile ducts irrespective of their sizes or etiologies. 2. Cancer related carbohydrate residues such as CEA, CA 19-9 and DUPAN II were frequently seen in cholagniocarcinoma associate
… Mored with hepatolithiasis, and also their preneoplastic lesions in stone-containing intrahepatic bile ducts. ABH, and Lewis a, b, X, and Y blood group related antigens were lost or strongly expressed clonally in carcinoma tissue, while such clonal expression was not evident in atypical biliary epithelial hyperplasia of the stone-containing bile ducts. 3. Biliary epithelial cells isolated from rabbits and cultured in collagen gel lost transiently their polarity, while they profiliferated and formed unicellular and multicellular cysts, and then they regained their pecular polarities manifested by the expression of carbohydrate residues, microvilli and other markers of cellular polarity. Preliminary study disclosed that carcer cell lines (CCKS 1) from the biliary tract cancer did not show the peculiar carbohydrate distribution and secretion as seen in rabbit biliary epithelial cells after embedding and culture in collagen gel culture. 4. Subculture of individual anatomial elements of biliary epithelial cells from the biliary tract diseases in the colagen gel culture and the altered secretion and production of carbohydrate secretion under various stimuli seems necessary to evaluate the pathophysiology of the intrahepatic biliary tree. Less